Repair in fertilized eggs of mice and its role in the production of chromosomal aberrations

The fertilized egg may influence the yield of dominant-lethal mutations produced from chemical treatment of male postmeiotic germ cells to a small or large extent depending upon the mutagen used and the competence of the egg to repair the premutational lesions induced. The strain of females has small influence on the yield of dominant-lethal mutations induced by TEM or EMS in spermatids and spermatozoa. On the contrary, it has large influence in the case of IMS. In addition to this difference, TEM and EMS induce high levels of heritable translocations at these germ cell stages while IMS is practically ineffective even though doses of these chemicals used produced comparable levels of dominant-lethal mutations. These differences between EMS and TEM on one hand and IMS on the other, were explained as a function of the types of chromosomal lesions present at the time of repair activity and whether or not chromosomal aberrations are already fixed at the time of postfertilization pronuclear DNA synthesis